Bad seed, bad harvest

“Yeshua presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” And He said to them, “An enemy has done this!” (Matthew 13:24-28)

Within 150 years of the founding of the original Messianic community, poisonous spiritual seeds were sown into the budding soil of the church. These viruses were venomous and highly contagious, and their toxicity infected many branches on the olive tree. The resulting infection polluted Christian attitudes, theology, behavior and a balanced Last Days vision for nearly two millennia. 

These bad seeds are what is known today as ‘Replacement Theology.’ These tares have contaminated much of the Body of Messiah. Most believers carry this ‘spiritual corona virus’ within their souls, unaware of its malevolent influence.

Pagan roots of Jew-hatred

The exiled twelve tribes found themselves scattered across what is today Iraq, Iran and Turkey. After Alexander the Great’s conquests, Jewish expatriate communities settled into the pagan societies of the Mediterranean. By the time Pontius Pilate became prefect (Greek, hēgemṓn) in Judea, Jew-hatred had a broad following inEgyptian, Greek and Roman societies. Two excellent historical sources on this are: Greek and Latin authors on Jews and Judaism, (Menachem Stern, 1974) and The Anguish of the Jews (Edward H. Flannery, 1965). What was it that pagan anti-Semites didn’t like about the Jewish people?

Persian anti-Semitism

Initial Persian attacks against Jews began in the royal court and were motivated by professional jealousy. But the official charges focused on disloyalty to the king – as expressed through Daniel’s obedience to the covenant and his refusal to worship any God except YHVH (Daniel 6:11). The three Hebrews had been thrown into the fiery furnace for a similar reason – because they refused to worship Babylonian demons (Daniel 3:1-12, 16-18).  Daniel already had a reputation in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace for keeping himself separate from eating non-kosher Babylonian royal foods (Daniel 1:8).

Haman (called the ‘enemy of the Jews’ in Esther 3:10; 7:6; 8:1) was infuriated by the Jewish people’s separateness and their refusal to assimilate into Persian religious and social habits: “Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, ‘There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws’” (Esther 3:8).

Greek anti-Semitism

Jews dwelling in in the Greek Empire saw themselves as living in an impure land (see Hosea 9:13; Amos 7:17). The sons of Jacob were guided by the biblical perspective that “all the gods of the peoples are idols” (Psalm 96:5; see also Judges 2:12; 2 Samuel 7:23, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6) and that YHVH had given the Jewish people an irrevocable national calling which involved separateness and priority (Numbers 23:9; Romans 11:28-29; 1:16).

“To the proud heirs of Pericles, Aristotle and Homer, this aloofness was an insufferable arrogance.” The Greeks were convinced that anything non-Greek was primitive and barbarian, and “they naturally resented rival claims to superiority or privilege on the part of a people they considered politically and culturally undistinguished” (Flannery, Anguish, pages 6-7).

Roman anti-Semitism

Cicero the Roman statesman and philosopher (circa 50 B.C.) spoke irately of Jewish separateness:

The Jews “sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart … They abstain from intercourse with foreign women … They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account … The religious ceremonies and observances of that people were very much at variance with the splendor of this empire and the dignity of our name and the institutions of our ancestors. And they are the more odious to us now because that nation has shown by arms what were its feelings towards our supremacy” (www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0019%3Atext%3DFlac.%3Achapter%3D28; Pro Flacco 28:69).

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (teacher of Nero, circa 50 A.D.) spoke similarly against the Jews. The Jews, though defeated by Rome, managed to preserve their separated lifestyle and their strong commitment to YHVH’s laws.  “The customs of that most accursed nation have gained such strength that they have been now received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors!” (in Augustine, The City of God, VI, 11; www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm).

The Roman historian Tacitus (circa 100 A.D.) adds: “The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness … But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles” (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Histories/5A*.html).

Celsus, a Roman anti-Christian philosopher of the 2nd century A.D., declared: The Jews “pride themselves on … being possessed of superior wisdom, and keep aloof from intercourse with others, as not being equally pure with themselves” (www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/celsus.html; V, 41).

Pagans responded with anger and hatred to Israel’s divine calling to be separate and distinct from other nations (as per Numbers 23:9). Since Israel’s calling and gifts remain irrevocable even in our day (Romans 11:28-29), it should come as no surprise that most modern nations (whether pagan or baptized) respond to God’s choosing of the Jewish people with similar anger and hatred.

Early Christian anti-Semitism

By A.D. 100 the bad seed of  anti-Semitism was firmly planted in the Roman Empire, the garden of the Gentile Church. Within two hundred years these bad seeds would blossom and proclaim that:

Here are some quotes from Church Fathers which underscore these teachings:

God has rejected the Jewish people – “For inasmuch as the former (ed., the Jews) have rejected the Son of God, and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him, God has justly rejected them, and given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 36; www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103436.htm)

Gentiles are the new Israel – Justin Martyr was born in Neapolis (modern Nablus, Samaria) about 100 A.D. He declared that “Christ is the Israel and the Jacob. Even so we, who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race” (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 135; www.newadvent.org/fathers/01289.htm). There is no little irony in seeing a Samaritan insist on calling himself ‘a true Jew’ while denying that right to real Jews.

In another quote, Justin takes a prophetic passage directed to the Jewish people and insists that it can only be applied to Gentile Christians: “‘Therefore, says the Lord, I will raise up to Israel and to Judah the seed of men and the seed of beasts.’ (ed., Jeremiah 31:27) Since then God blesses this people, and calls them Israel, and declares them to be His inheritance, how is it that you (ed., Jews) repent not of the deception you practice on yourselves, as if you alone were the Israel, and of execrating the people whom God has blessed? For when He speaks to Jerusalem and its environs, He thus added: ‘And I will beget men upon you, even My people Israel; and they shall inherit you, and you shall be a possession for them; and you shall be no longer bereaved of them.’” (ed., Ezekiel 36:12). Trypho the Jew responds: “What, then? Are you Israel? And speaks He such things of you?” (Justin Martyr, Trypho, Chapter 123; www.newadvent.org/fathers/01288.htm)

The Jews are actually Esau – “We are Israel … Let therefore no Christian consider himself alien to the name of Israel … The Christian people then is rather Israel … But that multitude of Jews, which was deservedly reprobated for its perfidy, for the pleasures of the flesh sold their birthright, so that they belonged not to Jacob, but rather to Esau” (Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 114:3; www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801114.htm)

Circumcision is a sign of judgment on Jews – “For circumcision … was given for a sign – that you may be separated for the other nations and from us, and that you alone may suffer that which you now justly suffer” (Justin Martyr, Trypho, Chapter 16:2)

Positive prophecies about Israel “cannot be understood in a literal signification” – ‘Spiritual’ Christians should re-interpret positive prophecies about Israel, presenting them instead as positive prophecies about Gentile Christians only (Origen, On First Principles, Book IV, 19-22; www.newadvent.org/fathers/04124.htm)

God’s purpose in concentrating worship in Jerusalem was only to destroy it – “Why Jerusalem was destroyed? … This is what God did. He made Jerusalem what we might call the keystone which held together the structure of worship. When He overthrew the city, He destroyed the rest of the entire structure of that way of life” (John Chrysostom, Eight Homilies against the Jews IV:6:9; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eight_Homilies_Against_the_Jews#VI_3)

There will be no restoration for the Jewish people – “You did slay Christ, you did lift violent hands against the Master, you did spill His precious blood. This is why you have no chance for atonement, excuse, or defense” (John Chrysostom, VI:2:10; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eight_Homilies_Against_the_Jews#I_6)

The Jews have irrevocably lost their calling in God – “I have endeavored to show that the Jews, according to what had before been foretold, had departed from God, and had lost God’s favor, which had been given them in past time, and had been promised them for the future; while the Christians had succeeded to their place, deserving well of the Lord by faith, and coming out of all nations and from the whole world” (Cyprian, Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews; Treatise XII; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_V/Cyprian/The_Treatises_of_Cyprian/Three_Books_of_Testimonies_Against_the_Jews/Preface)

King David prophesied God’s rejection of the Jews – “But after the Jews for the plots which they made against the Savior were cast away from His grace, the Savior built out of the Gentiles a second Holy Church, the Church of us Christians … And David prophesying of both these, said plainly of the first which was rejected, I have hated the congregation of evil doers ; but of the second which is built up he says in the same Psalm, Lord, I have loved the beauty of Your house … For now that the one Church in Judea is cast off, the Churches of Christ are increased over all the world … Agreeably to which the prophet also said to the Jews, I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord Almighty (ed. Malachi 1:10) and immediately afterwards, For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name is glorified among the Gentiles.”  (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 18:25; www.newadvent.org/fathers/310118.htm)

The new Gentile celebration of Easter must replace the accursed Jews and their Passover – “At this meeting the question concerning the most holy day of Easter was discussed, and it was resolved by the united judgment of all present, that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day … And first of all, it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. For we have it in our power, if we abandon their custom … Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd … Since, therefore, it was needful that this matter should be rectified, so that we might have nothing in common with that nation of parricides who slew their Lord…it is most fitting that all should unite in desiring that which sound reason appears to demand, and in avoiding all participation in the perjured conduct of the Jews … (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Chapters 18-19; www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm)

The Jews are forever to be the slaves of the Gentile Church –  “‘And the one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger’ (ed., Genesis 25:23) … Only that saying, ‘The elder shall serve the younger,’ is understood by our writers, almost without exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the younger people, the Christians … When it was said, ‘The one people shall overcome the other people,’ and ‘the elder shall serve the younger,’ that prophecy meant some greater thing. And what is that except what is evidently fulfilled in the Jews and Christians?”

(Augustine, The City of God, Book XVI, chapter 35; www.newadvent.org/fathers/120116.htm)

The above quotations throw a spotlight on how the enemy’s poisoned seed began to sprout in the field of the Christian church.

Doing plastic surgery on a Jewish book

The Church Fathers sketched their anti-Semitic theological conclusions on the quickly drying cement of Christian theology. Even though 95% of the Scriptures were written by Jews and over 92% of the Bible’s content concerns the Jews, the bad-seed influence of these anti-Semitic theologians decisively affected Christian theology. From the second century A.D. onward, Bible commentators, teachers and preachers tended to apply positive scriptural promises for Israel exclusively to the Gentiles, while ascribing all negative promises for Israel to the Jewish people alone. Today this is still standard practice for the vast majority of Christendom, including for many of my dear friends.

There are two main results here:

Another result of centuries of Christian ‘bad-seed attitude’ toward the Jewish people needs to be mentioned. Anti-Semitic presuppositions color and distort biblical teaching about Last Days Jewish destiny. Negative paradigms about the Jewish people actually pervert biblical understanding and result in anti-Semitic eschatology (Last Days teaching).

Augustine - perverting the meaning of the Chosen People

Augustine reinterpreted Israel’s chosenness to mean something negative. According to his novel teaching, Jews were actually chosen to be punished continually by God down through the corridors of time. The Jewish people no longer have any positive role to play in history. No positive developments can happen to them until after Israel repents of rejecting Yeshua.

On January 5, 1897, the semi-official Vatican Jesuit periodical Civilta Cattolica published an article ‘The Dispersion of Israel over the Modern World.’ The Vatican declared that God cannot be involved in a Jewish return to Zion, using language and theology taken straight from St. Augustine:

The same Augustinian refusal to acknowledge God’s love and grace in a Jewish return to Zion was voiced by Papal Secretary of State Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val in a 1904 correspondence with Theodore Herzl. “As long as the Jews deny Christ's divinity, we cannot take a stand favorable to them.”

Pope Pius X declared to Herzl in a face-to-face private discussion on January 22, 1904:

All followers of Yeshua are challenged by this history. Can we acknowledge it, repent for it and take pro-active steps to support the restoration of the Jewish people?

Bad seeds in our day

Augustine could point in his day to the destruction of Jerusalem as a support for his teaching that Jews would be fated to wander the earth until the end of time. Today, however, he would have difficulty in making the same point. This is because for the first time in nearly 2,000 years the Jewish people have returned to their Land of Promise and are making it bloom.

There is a miniscule ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in Jerusalem called Neturei Karta (‘the guardians of the city’ in Aramaic).  They strongly believe that the Jewish people should never have set up a secular state but should have instead become ultra-Orthodox Jews living under Muslim domination. Neturei Karta refuse to accept the validity of the State of Israel and proclaim that the Jewish state will soon be destroyed. Who would have thought that Augustinian anti-Semitism would be preached by a backwater of ultra-Orthodox Jews in a Jerusalem ghetto? Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Unfortunately, this same anti-Semitic teaching is being recycled by some in our day. Back in May and June 2012 I wrote two newsletters analyzing the teachings of Art Katz (https://davidstent.org/he-being-dead-still-speaks/) and Dalton Lifsey-Thomas (https://davidstent.org/prophesying-the-destruction-of-zion/). You can peruse these articles for a more in-depth explanation of their belief that the modern state of Israel will be totally destroyed ‘according to Scripture.’

Here are some quotes from Katz and Lifsey-Thomas which underscore these teachings:

Prophesying the total destruction of the Zionist vision is bad seed

Many Jews believe that if one scratches a Christian, one finds an anti-Semite. We thank God that there are many Gentile followers of Yeshua whose life and actions show this charge to be a lie. Yet at the same time, the propagating of Zion’s total destruction cannot be interpreted as a love note to Israel. Those who teach it are sucked into the dragnet of classical Christian anti-Semitism, even if they do good works for Israel at the same time.

Three essential vitamins are needed to disinfect the field of bad seeds and its poisoned harvest.

One, God’s heart is close to Israel. They are “a people close to His heart” (Psalm 148:14) and God is not an abusive father. To say that “Jesus took personal responsibility for … the slaughter of a million Jews” and only thus would His “divine vengeance and wrath … be finally satisfied” (Covenant, p. 24) reveals what seems to be a toxic understanding of God’s fatherhood. The strident focus on an angry God snuffing His people is so far out of line with the Biblical record that it is sad that any corrective reminders are necessary.

Two, in Ezekiel 37 YHVH restores the Jewish people to the Land of Israel by a work of His gracious Spirit – while they are still not believers (Ezekiel 37:9-14). Only after the Jewish people return to the Land do they come to faith, in the prophet’s vision. To deny that today’s Jewish return to Zion is an act of a gracious God, and to insist that no return is possible until Israel repents and comes to faith – this teaching violates the prophetic word of Ezekiel 37, and it sets up conditions opposed to those in the prophecy. Grace is unmerited favor. God shows unmerited favor to Israel in Ezekiel 37. For some, that grace showered on Israel is unsettling.

Three, the goal or schwerpunkt of the resuscitation of Israel in Ezekiel 37:10 is to transform the entire Jewish people (37:11) into an exceedingly great army. This army will fight Israel’s and God’s enemies as per Psalm 83:1-5, Zechariah 12:1-9, Psalm 110:1-3, Isaiah 41:14-16, Ezekiel 34-39, etc. The Augustinian scenario where the Jews have no prophetic future except to cry “uncle!” melts like a wax statue before the prophetic vision of Ezekiel’s army.

Careful gardening is needed to pull out the weeds and remove the bad seeds. The enemy has taken much time and care in his goal to infect the body of Messiah. We are challenged by the Lord to invest the needed time, care and love as we help fellow believers (even if the cadre who pushes this false teaching is rather small) to “examine everything carefully, to hold fast to that which is good, and to abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Flash floods in the desert

In the Israeli desert there are scrubby bushes that thrust their way up through the desert floor. They tenaciously hang on to life in the sun-beaten wilderness, like the Jewish people have done throughout history. Psalm 126 is birthed out of the heart of the Negev desert. The psalm draws spiritual and prophetic inspiration from the wastelands south of Beersheva. and breathes life into promises which seem shriveled up. Our gaze is lifted to the amazing day when hope will become sight for the Jewish people – indeed, for the whole planet as well (see Romans 11:15).

We’re dancing up to Zion

“A psalm of ascents” (Psalm 126:1a). This declaration was sung three times a year during the pilgrim feasts, as the sons of Israel made their way from every point in the Promised Land up to the Holy City of Jerusalem: “Three times in a year all your males shall appear before YHVH your God in the place which He chooses – at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths. And they shall not appear before YHVH empty-handed” (Deuteronomy 16:16).

The national Jewish songbook had a special folder of tunes called ‘the Psalms of Ascent’ (Psalms 120-134). These were chanted with joy and dancing as the Hebrew pilgrims wended their way up to Zion. “You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival, and gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute, to go to the mountain of YHVH, to the Rock of Israel” (Isaiah 30:29).

Who would have thunk it?

“When YHVH brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers” (Psalm 126:1b).  The Jewish exiles in Babylon were dumbfounded when King Cyrus decreed that they could return from the lands of their captivity (see Ezra 1:1-4). They pinched themselves in unbelief, and those who did return to Zion and rebuilt the House of YHVH shouted for joy at this amazing prophesied turn of events.

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting” (verse 2). There was intense national celebration, perhaps similar to the Victory Parades in Moscow (1945), London and New York (1946) after the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan. The Hebrew word ‘rina’ is used here, describing the full-throated battle cry common in Middle Eastern culture (see 1 Samuel 18:6-7).

“Then they said among the nations, ‘YHVH has done great things for them’” (verse 2). God’s amazingly gracious and redemptive dealings with Israel caused the nations who got word of this to praise the name of YHVH of Israel. Certainly King Cyrus was one of those who made such a declaration (2 Chronicles 35:22-23). This spiritual principle lies at the heart of Psalm 117, where the nations are called to praise YHVH because of His covenant faithfulness to the Jewish people. This is a key to God’s dealings with the nations – for then. for now, and for days yet to come.

“YHVH has done great things for us, and we’ve become joyful” (verse 3). YHVH’s name is a covenant name, and every Jewish person calling on His name remembered the covenants He had made with Israel. “O give thanks to YHVH, for He is good, for His covenant faithfulness is everlasting” (1 Chronicles 16:34). The entire Jewish nation was filled with thanksgiving for the incredible Restoration to Zion that they were witnessing.

Hebrew word plays – ‘captivity’ and ‘return’

All Hebrew words are built on root stems. Sometimes one can find two different words/meanings which have similar roots. This allows for beautiful word plays in the Hebrew Scriptures. Psalm 126:3 uses the word ‘shuv’ – it can have two different meanings, depending on context and form. Here is how it looks in Hebrew: “Restore (SHUVa) our captivity (SH’Vitenu), YHVH!” In 2 Chronicles 30:9 the prophet uses these two ‘shuv’ homonyms a total of four times, intertwining shades of meanings involving captivity, repenting, and returning from exile/captivity.

The psalmist is penning the 126th psalm in the Land of Israel. He has seen firsthand the amazing First Return from Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah. The event was actually happening as he wrote the psalm. But now in verse 4 he is calling on YHVH the covenant God to complete His redemptive work and fully restore the Jewish people from their world-wide Exile (see Deuteronomy 30:1-7).

“Restore our captivity, YHVH, as the streams in the South” (verse 4). What has been done through Ezra and Nehemiah is amazing – so amazing that we have difficulty believing it on some days, says the psalmist! But now, bring us ALL back home: “Save us, YHVH our God, and gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to Your holy name and to glory in Your praise” (Psalm 106:47).

Gently down the stream

The Hebrew wording unpacks the phrase “streams in the South.” ‘Ka’afiqim baNegev’ is the exact phrase. The Negev is a semi-arid desert area south of Beersheva. For the most part one cannot live there. There are two reasons for this – little rain, and a soil that immediately ‘soaks up’ (that’s the Hebrew meaning of Negev) what little rain there is.

When it rains in the Negev, the silty loess soil (Löß; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess) causes the water to skate across its surface and build up into wild channels of rushing water. These ‘afiqim’ (flash floods) cascade down (either to the Dead Sea or to the Mediterranean) as a wall of water moving at great speed (40 miles/60 km. per hour) and sometimes attaining a height of 30 feet/9 meters (see www.timesofisrael.com/desert-highways-flood-as-rains-lash-israel/ for a recent example).

Irrigation through tears

Crops can grow in the northern Negev when there is rain. Ancient farmers knew that the season of sowing would only bring a harvest if sufficient rains came at the right time. The psalmist hands over to us a prophetic vision: when there is no rain, let our intercessory tears for Israel’s restoration be the water that does the trick!

As we put our hand to the plough of Jewish restoration – whether in intercession, in supporting the Messianic remnant, in helping Jewish people to return home, in sharing the precious gospel seed with Jewish people (see Romans 1:16’s Jewish priority!) – as we labor with tears, there is a promise of reaping a real and significant harvest.

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him!” (verses 5-6).

God’s word of promise – that Israel will return to her homeland, will embrace her Messiah, and will bring life from the dead to the nations of this world (our national calling in Isaiah 49:5-6; Romans 11:12, 15) – is rock-solid prophecy based on the unchanging nature of our covenant-keeping God.

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Clarifying the Deal

The U.S. ‘Deal of the Century’ was released in Washington D.C. on  Tuesday January 28, 2020. Here is some bite-sized perspective to help understand what is going on.

“It’s for your own good”

The phrase “it’s for your own good” usually means that you are being forced to do something which is neither enjoyable or desired. The authors of the ‘Deal of the Century’ lay out many solutions which they believe are “for your own good” – for the good of the Israelis and for the good of the Palestinians. But the devil is in the details, as Friedrich Nietzsche would say (“Der Teufel steckt im Detail”). A contract may look fine at first glance, but a thorough reading can unveil problems and hidden agendas. Small issues can ultimately cause a deal to self-destruct.

Why did all Palestinian groups reject the Deal?

The Palestinian leaderships (jihadi Hamas, Islamic Jihad and terrorist PLO/Palestinian Authority) totally reject the Deal for many reasons, including the following:

The Islamist perspective is simple: any territory which has been conquered by the armies of Islam at any point in history cannot revert to non-Islamic rule. To allow a Jewish state and any Jewish control of lands conquered by jihad in 638 A.D. is considered heretical. Palestinian history from the 1920’s has marched to the drumbeat of a constant refusal to accept Jewish existence in Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Galilee and the Golan.

Why have some right-of-center Israelis responded somewhat positively to the Deal?

The Israeli right wing accept parts of the Deal:

Israelis understand that the U.S.A. is Israel’s warmest ally and that Trump is by far the most Israel-positive President in U.S. history. For the most part Israelis (including Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu) want to honor Trump and his country – even if there are strong reservations and concerns about some of the Deal’s details.

Why are significant portions of Israel hesitant about the Deal?

A majority of Israelis reject certain parts of the Deal:

Most Orthodox and traditional Jews (over 20% of Israeli Jews) strongly object to the Jordanian Waqf (Muslim religious council) controlling the Temple Mount – meaning that Jews are forbidden from praying on Mount Moriah. Mixed signals from U.S. officials regarding the freedom of Israel to annex areas (first, Ambassador Friedman’s encouragement followed by Jared Kushner’s clear denial) has also raised the issue of trust and believability on the part of many Israelis.

“Did God really say …?”

In the Garden of Eden Satan spoke through a serpent, cynically casting doubt on God’s clear commandment: “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). A handful of American teachers with a Middle Eastern focus are raising doubts about YHVH’s commitment to His own word and covenant promises. One website recently stated that the attempt to slice portions off from the Jewish homeland and to hand them over to Israel’s sworn and murderous enemies has little significance, and that it has nothing to do with the principle of dividing the land.

The prophets Joel and Zechariah speak of a Last Days’ process of dividing the Jewish homeland (see Joel 3:1-2 and Zechariah 14:1-2). That process peaks with a military invasion of Jerusalem and the return of Messiah Yeshua (Zechariah 14:1-4). Today’s events catalyze that process and move it forward. But YHVH still honors His covenant promise of Genesis 12:3. He still brings judgment on the troublers of Israel (see Joel 3:2). God’s clear prophetic plumbline – the Bible – stands strong in our day:

Learning from history?

Someone once said that what we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. This proverb is unfortunately true regarding the efforts of the nations to divide the Land of Israel – whether it be into large slices or into bite-sized chunks.

Back in 2005 the world focused briefly on the dividing the Land of Israel (and the withdrawal of Israelis from land promised to them by YHVH), when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon removed over 9,000 Israelis from 25 farms and settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. Here are some articles considering the overwhelmingly negative results of that withdrawal. It makes instructive reading in light of similar events and dynamics today:

“Would that they were wise, that they would discern their future” (Deuteronomy 32:29)

Here are some penetrating comments from the time of the 2005 withdrawal, with thoughtful application to the present:

“Israel's mistakes are not unique for a democracy – French appeasement of Germany in the 1930s or American incrementalism in Vietnam come to mind – but none other jeopardized the very existence of a people” (www.danielpipes.org/2861/the-gaza-withdrawal-a-democracy-killing-itself).

“President George W. Bush on Monday told Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, that he supported Israel's planned July pullout from the Gaza Strip, while telling him not to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank” (Financial Times, www.ft.com/content/ec584920-aaa8-11d9-98d7-00000e2511c8).

“Dov Weisglass, a close confidante of Sharon and his former chief of staff … stressed that as a result of the Gaza pullout, the US and the world recognized Israel’s right to the settlement blocs … This understanding, he added, was the ‘single biggest diplomatic achievement since 1948.’ Since then, Weisglass said, all the diplomatic gains Sharon made for Israel within the framework of the disengagement have since been lost … As for the Hamas takeover of Gaza after the disengagement, Weisglass said it was ‘the most difficult moment for me. It was totally unexpected’” (www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Former-chief-of-staff-Ariel-Sharon-designed-Gaza-disengagement-to-save-West-Bank-settlements-412213).

“PM Ariel Sharon’s decision to fully implement the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza …  created conditions that enabled Hamas and Islamic Jihad to amass large quantities of advanced weaponry. A similar move in the West Bank … would likely put Israel’s heartland, including its main economic and industrial infrastructure and Ben-Gurion Airport, under an unacceptable threat. Those are just some of the factors that must be given serious consideration with regard to any similar move in the West Bank. These potential threats … [cast] serious doubts on the wisdom of ‘experts’ who keep pushing for additional withdrawals in the West Bank … The debate over the interpretation of the clear and present danger emerging in Gaza following the disengagement holds the key to saving Israel from the dangers attending the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank” (Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, Senior Research Fellow, the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies; https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/gaza-disengagement-lessons/).

“Following 10 years since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, it appears that most of the expectations the Israelis had from the measure were not met … particularly in the security and political spheres . The gap between the aspirations and the results is wide … It appears that most of the security events in the south over the past decade were the result of the disengagement. The withdrawal from the Gaza Strip created a new reality that contributed to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, a steep rise in weapons smuggling, the strengthening of terrorism, and the ensuing cycle of escalation” (Col. Shmuel Even [Ret.], IDF Intelligence Branch; www.inss.org.il/wp-content/uploads/systemfiles/adkan18_2ENG_3_Even.pdf).

Last of all, a recent comment about Trump’s Deal of the Century: It “has some overwhelming obstacles to implementation in the short term, not least its calls for the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.  Hamas has no intention of de-militarizing and the PA has no power in the strip to force it to. The deal also calls for the PA to stop incitement and paying salaries to Palestinian prisoners convicted of terror attacks – something it has repeatedly refused to do so despite strong international pressure, including funding cuts. (Colin Rubenstein, https://aijac.org.au/op-ed/the-opportunity-of-trumps-deal-of-the-century/).

Dividing the land – a present and future reality

US Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover once said that “the devil is in the details, but so is salvation.”

As the nations stumble and attempt to lift the heavy stone of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:3), most might not be aware that they are touching the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8). They may be motivated by wanting to solve an intractable problem, by wanting to gain fame for achieving the unattainable, by insuring a smooth supply of oil in a dangerous part of the world, etc.

Whatever the case, God’s plumbline for the world is the word of God, and His foreign policy for the nations is linked to their treatment of Israel, their heart-attitudes to the Jewish people.

Here are some thoughts about how God will even use blind world leaders to establish His plans and to close ‘His Deal’:

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

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